Fifties Era Essay

Fifties Era Essay

The American society after WWII was built around fear it’s self. Fear of communism was what the people believed to be the fear of the century. Dramatically life in America changed. People started thinking that the government was no longer safe and many people feared the advancement of nuclear weapons greatly. Although the fear of communism changed some aspects of life, not everything was bad. During this time levittowns were produced to help americans live out the “American Dream”.
The Red Scare played a big roll in changing the way people looked at society. The Red Scare came about when Senator, Joseph McCarthy, made a speech to a women’s club declaring that “ I have in my hands, a list of 205- a list of names that were made known to the secretary of state of being members of the communism party.”. This was the beginning of the Red Scare. Many people lived in fear that communism would thrive while capitalism would be threatened. After McCarthy presented his speech this changed the way that people looked at not only their family differently but their neighbors and friends as well.
During the Red Scare people started getting accused of being disloyal. People who spoke out against the government were viewed as a threat to the rest of society. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are an example of these accusations. This American communist couple were convicted and executed for committing espionage that were made for passing information about the atomic bomb to the soviets. Everyday people were getting accused and executed, even if they weren’t guilty.
As the fear of communism grew bigger so did the Sovites advancements of nuclear weapons. Right after WWII Stalin starts his research on nuclear weapons to catch up to the Americans. The Soviets thought that they were falling behind so they started much research on the nuclear weapons. Americans worried so much about protecting themselves from nuclear weapons, that they would have videos to show...